Roasted Garlic and Tomatoes at the Phipps Conservatory

Second-to-last weekend in Pittsburgh! I realize I'm running out of time here to do tourist-y things. I've been to a bunch of restaurants (Pamela's, Fuel and Fuddle, Thai Place, Mercurio's to name a few), but I haven't been to any museums yet, or the Carnegie Library, or the Strip District (not what you think, I promise), or the Incline. Time has been slipping past and I'm feeling more than a little anxious that I haven't taken advantage of my time here as much as I should have. I want to make every day count when I'm abroad, and I should have done the same thing here.

Anyway, this weekend I made it to The Art Festival on Walnut Street. The whole street was closed down. Small stalls were set up along the middle for people to display their artwork.

This is embroidery y'all!

We went in the evening, the weather was beautiful

Metal work 

Wood carvings

 We walked around Shadyside after, enjoying the weather and looking for food. We ended up across the street from Yinzburgh BBQ (which is EXCELLENT), at a Chipotle (sorry, Dad).

Shadyside is a really beautiful neighborhood, so here's someone's house that I creeped on

Sunday was the Garlic and Tomato Festival the Phipps Conservatory!

If there's anything that I love about the weather in Pittsburgh, it's these happy, puffy little clouds every day. Don't be fooled, though, these clouds tend to turn into angry thunderstorms when you're not paying attention. 

We crossed a bridge.

It had lots of locks

There was a farmer's market outside of the conservatory, showcasing (unsurprisingly) tomatoes and roasted garlic, but also honeys and teas and other vegetables. The Conservatory grows its own garlic and tomatoes, and they were serving samples outside! We also got some samples of garlic cheese, garlic pesto and spicy cranberry tea.

And since I had never been inside the Conservatory itself, Carolyn and I used our PittIDs to get free tickets to look around inside. Poor Carolyn has taken on the roll of my go-to Adventure Time buddy, and has definitely been invaluable in accustoming myself to Pittsburgh and this program in general. If you can't tell already, we've done a lot together so far. Thanks, girl!

The main entrance leads to what can only be described as a jungle...

...which branches off to smaller rooms, with tiny trains that run under and around all the vegetation

There's little sculptures hidden all over the place

And there's more than just trains!

Yeah I did take a close-up of a flower. Sue me.

More sculptures, I wish I had thought to grab the name of the artist

The trains definitely weren't only entertainment for the toddlers there.

The rooms branching off the atrium resembled this room, although they contained a different assortment of plants

A Chinese Elm in the bonsai garden.

Heading back to the bus stop

And I made a little time to take a picture in front of the school sign (something I still haven't done at JHU)

Eight days until I fly to Paris. Crazy.

拜拜啦，

Rachel